In recent decades Africa has emerged as a sporting giant. The African sporting phenomenon has been addressed in the popular press and it has also attracted scholarly interest; however, this interest is almost entirely focussed on men. Yet women’s participation in recreational and elite sport is worthy of exploration and research. This path-breaking collection of essays provides an introduction to a variety of dimensions of women’s participation in African sports. Several key concepts are addressed in the book: women and media, women and sport-migration, sport and empowerment, sporting and social development, women’s sport and postcolonial Africa, and professional sport and economic development. This collection, authored by established scholars, will attract readership from students from Sports Studies to African Studies and from undergraduate students to university teachers. This book was published as a special issue of Sport in Society.

In recent decades Africa has emerged as a sporting giant. The African sporting phenomenon has been addressed in the popular press and it has also attracted scholarly interest; however, this interest is almost entirely focussed on men. Yet women's participation in recreational and elite sport is worthy of exploration and research. This path-breaking collection of essays provides an introduction to a variety of dimensions of women's participation in African sports. Several key concepts are addressed in the book: women and media, women and sport-migration, sport and empowerment, sporting and social development, women's sport and postcolonial Africa, and professional sport and economic development. This collection, authored by established scholars, will attract readership from students from Sports Studies to African Studies and from undergraduate students to university teachers. This book was published as a special issue of Sport in Society.

Drawing on various theories and cross-cultural data, the contributors to this volume highlight the various ways in which sport norms, policies, practices and representations pervasively interface with gender and other socially constructed categories of difference. They argue that sport is not only a site of competition and physical recreation, but also a crossroad where features of modern society such as hegemony, identities, democracy, technology, development and master statuses intertwine and bifurcate. As they point out in many ways, sport production, reproduction, distribution and consumption are relational, spatial and contextual and, therefore, do not pay off for men, women and other social groups equally. The authors draw attention to the structure and scope of efforts needed to transform the exclusionary and gendered nature of sport processes to make them adequate to the task of engendering Africa's development. --

This book explores sport communication in Africa and the African diaspora. Drawing on multidisciplinary perspectives, it deepens our understanding of the importance of sport in African society as well as the profound and growing influence of the African diaspora in world sport, as athletes, scholars, leaders, and business and media professionals. Including contributions from leading African researchers and experts on sport in Africa across the fields of sociology, history, business, communication studies, media studies, and education, this book examines sport communication across a wide variety of contexts and countries, from the role of radio in developing awareness of the Olympic Games in Nigeria to the impact of Colin Kaepernick’s protest on journalistic practices in Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the USA. Presenting fascinating case studies such as print media and the historiography of football in Cameroon, racism in European football, and the relationship between sport, communication policy-making, and sustainable development in Africa, this book shines new light on key themes in the study of sport communication. This is fascinating reading for anybody with an interest in social-cultural issues in sport, the business and management of sport, sport and the media, African studies, or development studies.

Although female athletes are successful in all types of sport, in many countries sport is still a male domain. This book examines and compares the sporting experiences of women from different countries around the world and offers the first systematic and cross-cultural analysis of the topic of women in sport. Sport and Women presents a wealth of new research data, including in-depth case-studies of 16 countries in North and South America, Asia, Eastern and Western Europe and Africa. In addition, the book offers comparative assessments of the extent to which women are represented in global sport and the opportunities that women have to participate in decision-making processes in sport. The book illuminates a wide range of key international issues in women's sport, such as cultural barriers to participation and the efficacy of political action. It is therefore essential reading for anybody with an interest in the sociology, culture and politics of sport.

The meanings attached to sports in South African societies, past and present, are explored in this book, which focuses particularly on the part played by the prominent team sports of rugby, soccer and cricket in the creation of social divisions and unities over the course of South African history. In the past, only white South Africans could represent "South Africa" in international sport. Now, formerly white-dominated sports have been promoted as unifying forces for a nation in the process of forging a new national identity. The book considers the history and changing meanings attached to particular sports in the old and new South Africas, and how sport is being used and abused today.

Sport has been a component of African cultural life for several hundred years. In today’s globalized world, Africans and Africa have become a vital part of the international sporting landscape. This is the first book to attempt to survey the historical, contemporary and geographical breadth of that landscape, drawing on multidisciplinary scholarship from around the world. To gain an understanding of sport in Africa and its contributions to the global sports world, one must first consider the ways in which sport itself is a terrain of conflict and represents another symbolic territory to conquer. Addressing key themes such as colonialism, globalization, migration, apartheid, politics and international relations, sports media and broadcasting, ethnobranding, sports tourism and the African diaspora in Europe and the United States, this collection of original scholarship offers a significant contribution to this burgeoning field of research. Sport in the African World is fascinating reading for all students and scholars with an interest in sport studies, sport history, African history or African culture.